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Monday, October 8, 2012

Why am I letting it bother me that I heard yet another
conversation telling me older women are distasteful and irrelevant?

The source of the specious judgment was a commentator I formerly
admired, Melissa Harris-Perry, age 39, educated in my home state at venerable
North Carolina colleges Wake Forest and Duke University. She’s a professor of
political science at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Some Sunday mornings I watch Melissa Harris-Perry’s
political talk show on MSNBC. Bright and savvy, she has guests who spark lively
conversations. Related to their prospects of making presidential bids, a
discussion of the age difference between Joe Biden, 69, and Paul Ryan, 42, came
up, and segued to Hillary Clinton’s possible candidacy in 2016.

Melissa drew back in dismay at the mention of Mrs.
Clinton’s name, pulling away as if burned. “No,” she said.

No? What does she mean, no? What is going on here? I wondered.

“American voters don’t like older women. We won’t even buy
makeup from aging women…as an aging woman, Hillary Clinton becomes less and
less appealing to American voters, not in a way that’s fair….”

One of her panel members, Republican strategist Robert
Traynham, broke in, defending Hillary, proving once again that politics make
strange bedfellows. A male Republican defending Clinton? Whoa.

Mr. Traynham wanted to argue that Harris-Perry’s concern
about “aging women” didn’t apply to Mrs. Clinton for a number of reasons.
Unfortunately, he was cut off by another commentator who took the conversation
in a different direction.

I sat there in front of the TV, coffee cup in hand. Did I misunderstand,
somehow?

Surely Melissa Harris-Perry was not dissing older women? I
must have been mistaken.

So I’ve replayed the video several times since Sunday. Harris-Perry’s
facial expressions, intakes of breath, and body language belied her attempts to
temper her comments with “not in a way that’s fair,” and “no, she’s [Hillary Clinton]
enormously popular right now.”

Harris-Perry even threw in a further tidbit: “it’s not hard
to be popular,” dismissing all Clinton’s years of public service as a mere
popularity contest which anyone could
pull off.

It's not hard to be popular?

What?

Now, read my lips, my outrage is not so much for Hillary
Clinton as an individual, as it is for all “aging women.” Hillary can take care
of herself—she doesn’t need me to make her relevant or to tout her impressive
resume.

My outrage is for how little attitudes have changed towards
women at midlife and older. An enlightened woman like Harris-Perry taking such
a dim view of older women is truly sad.

I would love to be around in 15 years, when Harris-Perry is
54, to replay this tape for her. I’d like to ask her then what she thinks of “aging
women” and whether she thinks that whatever the “American people” think of
older women means that we should dry up and blow away. We don’t need to consider
running for president, because we offend the general public so much they won’t
even buy makeup from us.

What will "older woman" Harris-Perry say then, do you suppose?

(The video is available at MSNBC’s website. The segment is
called “Generation gap between vice-presidential candidates” on Melissa
Harris-Perry’s Oct. 7th show.)